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Today is Beer Clean Glassware Day. In honor of Beer Clean Glassware Day, I asked Chat GPT to write an article about the importance of Beer Clean Glassware. First, I asked Chat GPT to look at BeerExamSchool.com and analyze for my writing style. Then I asked it to write a 1,200-word article in my style, about the importance of beer clean glassware.
When I asked it for a word count, it was only 688 words. It gave another go and told me the word count was 1228 words, but Microsoft Word counted only 899 words. After a couple more tries and some confusion due to Chat GPT’s space limitations in each response, Chat GPT thought it had written 1,205 words, but it was actually 1,057. I’ll settle for that.
I kind of preferred one of the earlier, shorter versions; it had headings and numbered lists. This final, longer version feels repetitive and doesn’t have a lot of detail. I could spend more time editing different parts together from different versions, but this exercise is really more about my curiosity to see whether Chat GPT can do a good job on this assignment. I kept the article unaltered–I just added headings.
What do you think? Does the writing follow my style? Is it good information? Is it good writing? Will Chat GPT and other AI being doing all of our writing this time next year? Let me know in the comments below.
Can you find uses for Chat GPT at your brewery? Beer descriptions? Copy for your website or advertising? Letters to potential vendors? Hiring/firing letters? Let’s brainstorm in the comments below.
After reading, if you still have confusion or if some parts of the process are still unclear, check out this post on Beer Exam School. The part about Beer Clean Glassware is much fewer than 1,200 words, but I think it’s pretty understandable.
Happy Beer Clean Glassware Day!
The importance of Beer Clean GlasswareWhen it comes to serving and enjoying beer, many people focus on the quality of the brew itself. But one aspect that is often overlooked is the cleanliness and quality of the glassware used to serve it. While it may seem like a minor detail, the importance of beer clean glassware cannot be overstated. From taste and appearance to safety and hygiene, proper glassware care is an essential aspect of enjoying and serving beer.
Beer clean glassware is important for taste and aromaFirst and foremost, beer clean glassware is essential for ensuring that the beer tastes as it should. When a glass is not properly cleaned and maintained, it can lead to a variety of issues that impact the taste and aroma of the beer. For example, leftover soap residue or other contaminants can impact the flavor of the beer, making it taste off or even ruining the flavor entirely. Similarly, dirty glassware can impact the aroma of the beer, which is a crucial component of the overall drinking experience.
In addition to impacting the taste and aroma of the beer, dirty glassware can also impact the appearance of the brew. When beer is poured into a glass, it should have a clean, clear appearance with a nice head of foam. However, if the glass is dirty or has residual oils or other contaminants, it can impact the appearance of the beer, making it look cloudy or even flat. This can be particularly disappointing for beer enthusiasts who are looking to enjoy the full visual experience of the beer they are drinking.
Beer clean glassware is important for safety and hygieneBut the importance of beer clean glassware extends beyond just the taste and appearance of the beer. Proper glassware care is also essential for safety and hygiene reasons. When glassware is not properly cleaned and sanitized, it can become a breeding ground for bacteria and other harmful contaminants. This can not only impact the quality of the beer but can also be a health hazard for those who consume it.
In addition to the health risks, dirty glassware can also impact the quality of the beer in other ways. For example, residual oils and other contaminants can impact the carbonation of the beer, making it taste flat or lifeless. Similarly, dirty glasses can impact the foam and head retention of the beer, which is an important aspect of the overall drinking experience.
How to make you glassware Beer CleanSo, what can be done to ensure beer clean glassware? The first step is to invest in the right cleaning products and equipment. This may include special brushes, cleaning solutions, and drying racks designed specifically for glassware. It’s important to choose products that are specifically designed for beer glassware, as other cleaning products may contain harmful chemicals or leave behind residue that can impact the taste and appearance of the beer.
Once you have the right cleaning products, the next step is to establish a regular cleaning schedule and ensure that all employees are properly trained on the proper cleaning procedures. This may involve implementing a checklist or training program to ensure that all steps are followed correctly. It’s important to make sure that all glasses are thoroughly cleaned and sanitized after each use, and that they are stored properly to prevent contamination.
It’s also important to invest in quality glassware. While it may be tempting to opt for cheaper or lower quality options, investing in high-quality glassware can pay off in the long run. Not only do these glasses look and feel better, but they are also less likely to break or chip, reducing the risk of contamination. In addition, high-quality glassware is often designed with specific beer styles in mind, which can enhance the drinking experience.
For example, many states and localities have specific guidelines for glassware cleaning and storage, and it’s important to stay up-to-date to ensure compliance and to maintain the integrity of the beer you serve. By following these guidelines and making beer clean glassware a top priority, you can enhance the drinking experience for your customers and showcase your commitment to quality.
The quality and shape of glassware is also importantAnother important factor to consider when it comes to beer glassware is the shape of the glass itself. Different beer styles have different ideal glass shapes that can enhance the drinking experience. For example, a pint glass is ideal for serving ales and stouts, while a pilsner glass is designed to showcase the carbonation and color of a pilsner.
The shape of the glass can also affect the head retention and aroma of the beer. A narrow top can help trap the aroma of the beer, while a wider bowl can enhance the aroma and allow for a fuller, richer taste experience. Additionally, certain glass shapes can help maintain the carbonation level of the beer, which is especially important for highly carbonated styles like Belgian ales or German hefeweizens.
In addition to selecting the right glass for the right beer, it’s also important to make sure that the glass is clean and free from any contaminants that can impact the flavor or aroma of the beer. A dirty glass can contain oils, detergent residue, or even bacteria that can alter the taste of the beer.
To properly clean beer glassware, it’s recommended to wash the glasses in hot water and rinse them thoroughly to remove any residual soap. Some bars and restaurants use a special type of detergent specifically formulated for cleaning beer glasses. This detergent is designed to remove any grease or oil residues that can be left behind by regular dishwashing detergents.
Another option is to use a special cleaning brush designed specifically for beer glassware. These brushes can help reach those hard-to-clean areas at the bottom of the glass, and they can also help prevent scratches or other damage to the glass itself.
Your taste buds will thank youIn conclusion, the importance of clean glassware for beer cannot be overstated. The right glass can enhance the drinking experience by showcasing the unique characteristics of each beer style, while a dirty glass can detract from the flavor and aroma of the beer. By selecting the right glass for the right beer and taking the time to properly clean and maintain your glassware, you can ensure that you are getting the best possible taste and aroma from your favorite brews. So next time you enjoy a cold beer, take a moment to appreciate the clean and well-maintained glass it’s served in – your taste buds will thank you!
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The post I Asked Chat GPT To Make An Article About Beer Clean Glassware appeared first on MicroBrewr.
William Hubbard and Mike Johnson are helping to build the Broken Clock Brewing Cooperative in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It follows the cooperative brewery business model.
Cooperative breweries are an increasingly popular way to build a local brewery that helps build the community. We’ve previously talked a bit about the subject on MicroBrewr Podcast and blog.
Other posts about breweries as coops:
MicroBrewr: 046: Start your brewery as a worker-owned co-op
MicroBrewr 047: Proof of concept for a brewpub co-op
MicroBrewr 049: Planning California first cooperative brewpub
For a brewery truly rooted in the community, consider forming a cooperative by Sara Stephens, MicroBrewr, February 17, 2015.
Now here’s an example of a cooperative brewery that is up and running, brewing their own beer, splitting the profits, investing in the community, and building a community around the co-op.
The idea of employee ownership, and especially co-ops are becoming quite popular in the craft beer scene. Every cooperative brewery will be set up differently. Here’s one example and lots of ideas for your brewery to follow this model.
Some attributes of the Broken Clock Brewing Cooperative include:
- Established in September 2015, doors opened at the physical location in May 2017.
- The rules of one-person, one-vote and one-person, one-equity share ensure equality and allows inclusiveness.
- The board consists of 15 volunteers from the membership.
- Currently, the only paid positions are 2 operations managers and 4 staff.
There are 2 levels of membership at different costs: Regular or Brewer. Benefits of regular membership include:
- 10% discount on merchandise
- $1-off during monthly pint nights
- Share of profits (3-6% of total profits will be divided evenly)
Brewer members have the additional benefit of being allowed to brew. This benefit is exercised as unpaid/volunteer for work experience or just to have fun.
“Even though we are working a lot more than we probably used to, we are not staring at the clock waiting for the day to be over.” [Tweet This]
Broken Clock Brewing Cooperative took a big step forward when they bought equipment and took over the lease from another brewery. The space has become something of an incubator for breweries. Two previous breweries had grown in size enough to move to larger spaces, so they sold to the next brewery. Now Broken Clock has become successful enough they are considering how to pass the torch to a fourth brewery that could operate in the same location.
Funding for a cooperative brewery can come from a variety of tradition or innovative sources. Broken Clock received funding from:
- Financial donors
- Membership fees
- MNvest, equity crowdfunding for Minnesota
- Financing through a local bank
“Banks were very scared to go with us,” says Hubbard, “there are very few brewing co-ops in Minnesota. So we had to hit the pavement really hard and tell people about our dream, about our vision, and we were finally able to connect with a bank that was willing to work with us.”
We also talked about employee safety in a commercial brewery:
- Working with compressed gas
- Carbon dioxide poisoning
- Heavy-lifting
- Working with chemicals
- Working with steam
- OSHA work safety standards
Minnesota Craft Brewers Guild does have monthly safety meetings. However, worker safety in the craft beer industry isn’t a topic that is broadly discussed. Yet, worker safety should always be a top priority. Loss of work, workers compensation claims, and other liabilities are commercial concerns aside from just taking care of your employees.
As the craft beer industry becomes more prolific and professionalized, expect to see greater attention to this topic.
Brewery specs: Kettle size: 7 BBL. Boil kettle, 7 BBL mash tun, 10 BBL hot liquor tank.
Size and quantity of fermentation tanks: 3, 10-BBL fermenters.
Size and quantity of bright tanks: 1, 10-BBL brite tanks.
Annual brewing capacity/last year’s production: Should be on track to do 750-800 BBLs this year.
Square footage: 780 sq. ft. for production brewery. Added 5,000 sq. ft. for taproom which opened Nov 2018. At least 1,000 sq. ft. will be allocated to upcoming brewery expansion.
Years in operation: 4 months (at the time of recording; opened May 2017).
Listener question: From Gastón Rivera via Twitter: Why open a brewery? To brew another IPA or another sour?
Can’t-go-without tool: Rubber Boots.
Squeegee.
Book recommendation: * Practical Handbook for the Specialty Brewer 3-volume set by Karl Ockert (Editor). * Brewery Operations Manual by Tom Hennessy. * Operation Brewery: A Step-by-Step Guide to Building a Brewery on a Budget by Eddie Oldfield, Mike McGovern, and Dan Norris.
Check out the entire list of recommended books, click here.
An upcoming beer style: New England IPA
Other resources: * Is Groupon a Good Choice For Your Brewery Marketing Strategy?, Fill Your Taproom. * 56 Brewing, Minneapolis, Minnesota. * Minnesota Craft Brewers Guild. * Maple Island Brewing, Stillwater, Minnesota. * Wicked Wort Brewing Company, Robbinsdale, Minnesota. * MNvest, equity crowdfunding for Minnesota. * Fair State Brewing Cooperative, Minneapolis, Minnesota. * Blue Nose Gopher Public House Cooperative, Granite Falls, Minnesota. * Operation Brewery podcast, Black Hops Brewery, Burleigh Heads, QLD, Australia * Co-op law is different in each state. Be sure to consult your own attorney.
You can reach William Hubbard, Mike Johnson and Broken Clock Brewing Cooperative at: * http://brokenclockbrew.com/ * Facebook: brokenclockbrewing * Twitter: BrokenClockbrew * Instagram: brokenclockbrew * Untappd: BrokenClockBrewingCooperative
Sponsors:
Support MicroBrewr Help keep MicroBrewr on the air. CLICK HERE for ways you can help.
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Alex Standiford in Akron, Ohio started Fill Your Taproom to help breweries attract more customers. He does that through website development, social media management, branding, and email marketing.
“It’s not about trying to get people to buy your stuff. It’s about building the relationship and then providing the information that empowers them to make a decision.” [Tweet This]
Email isn’t dead and it’s not just for online digital businesses; email is important for “brick-and-mortar” real world business, too. In fact, email is an ever more important part of your overall marketing plan.
Ninety percent of email gets delivered to an inbox whereas just 2 percent of your Facebook fans will see your post in their news feed.
“You don’t have to think about email as generating sales directly,” says Alex. “If you think of marketing as getting someone to know, like, and trust you, and then making sure you’re top of mind whenever [that person] goes into a grocery store, you’re doing fine. That’s really most of the goal.”
Your brewery can use email to:
- Build relationships and learn more about your customers.
- Educate your customers and empower them to make a decision.
- Fill your taproom by offering special deals or promoting events and beer releases.
RELATED: 51 things your brewery can do with email
“Especially if you already have a decent sized following online,” Alex advises, “it would be wise to start trying to migrate these people into your email list.”
Focus less on where you get people to sign up to your email list, and more on what you do to get people to sign up. Offer them a reason to give you their email address, which many people keep very private. “People don’t give away their email address for no reason anymore,” says Alex.
Alex advises you start growing your email list 8-12 months before opening your brewery. You can use the Facebook call-to-action button or a simple website that says “coming soon.” Then offer something that’s worth the exchange of their email.
A couple ideas are:
- A PDF to teach customers about tasting beer
- The promise of VIP access to events
Book recommendation: * Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen.
Check out the entire list of recommended books, click here.
An upcoming beer style: Gose and lighter beers
Other resources: * Easy Beer Lister WP plugin. * Easy Age Verifier WP plugin. * Brew IO free WP theme for breweries. * 5 reasons every brewery needs and email list by Alex Standiford, MicroBrewr, August 1, 2016. * 51 things your brewery can do with email by Alex Standiford, MicroBrewr, August 17, 2016. * How to build a healthy email list for your craft brewery by Alex Standiford, MicroBrewr, September 2, 2016. * Rhinegeist Brewery, Cincinnati, Ohio. * MailChimp free email service provider. * Nosferatu® Imperial Red Ale by Great Lakes Brewing Co., Cleveland, Ohio.
You can reach Alex Standiford and Fill Your Taproom at: * fillyourtaproom.com * Facebook: fillyourtaproom * Twitter: fillyourtaproom * Instagram: fillyourtaproom * Untappd: alexstandiford
Sponsors:
Support MicroBrewr Help keep MicroBrewr on the air. CLICK HERE for ways you can help.
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Taxes for a microbrewery are super complicated. It can be difficult to know what to expect, when in the planning stages of a brewery. The following article is a guest post by Daniel Hicks that gives a good overview of what you need to know when it comes to paying taxes on the beer you brew.
How Microbrewery Taxes Really Work A common question I get asked is, “How do microbrewery taxes work?” Depending on who is asking the question, and whether or not we both have enough beer in hand to discuss the process without getting a headache, I give them one of two answers.
The simple answer is breweries (and brewpubs) pay federal taxes on beer that has been sold. Once money has been exchanged for your beer, Uncle Sam wants his cut of the action.
The complicated part of the taxes question is figuring out how much taxes should be paid, when they need to be paid, and the paperwork process involved in making sure everything is reported properly.
But before we go any further…
Disclaimer: Use of any information from this article or any other website referred to in this article is for general information only and does not represent personal or commercial tax advice either express or implied. You are encouraged to seek professional tax advice for tax questions and assistance.
Ok, you’ve been warned.
Down the taxes and operations reporting rabbit hole If you’ve already been seriously researching how to start a brewery, or if you’re already wading neck deep in the process, no doubt that you’ve heard of the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB). This agency handles all of the Federal regulatory issues, paperwork, and licensing for breweries.
Federal excise taxes for breweries are closely intertwined with another set of documents called the Brewer’s (or Brewpub) Report of Operations (BROP). The BROP reports describe how much beer was made, how it’s being stored (bulk, kegs, bottles/cans), as well as accounting for beer that might have been used for testing, moved from a different location, sent for export, or even destroyed or missing/stolen. Essentially, if you make beer commercially you will need to account for ALL stages of the beer’s life until it’s either drank by a happy customer in your tasting room or shipped out the door for sale.
There are 2 versions of the BROP: Form 5130.9 for Breweries or Form 5130.26. These forms and their instructions can be found on the TTB website at: http://www.ttb.gov/beer/beer-forms.shtml.
The Excise Tax form is known as Form 5000.24.
How much tax you pay, when you pay them, and when the BROP and excise reports need to be filed all depends on how much beer you plan on making and how much taxes you plan on paying over the whole year.
BROP Reports – Forms 5130.9 and 5130.26 Form 5130.9 is a more elaborate operations form based on the old (pre-2015) standard form for breweries. Larger breweries will need to report using Form 5130.9. It been slightly simplified as you no longer need to report on ingredients used.
Form 5130.26 is a simpler form based on the old standard form for brewpubs. Smaller breweries and brewpubs can both use Form 5130.26 for operations reporting.
The amount of tax you owed last year and the amount of tax you plan on owing this year determine which form you should use for your operations reporting.
If your tax liability was more than $50,000 last year (if you were in business) or you plan on it being more than $50,000 this year, you need to file your operations report monthly using Form 5130.9.
If your taxes were less than $50,000 last year and you plan on owing less than $50,000 this year, you can file your operations reports quarterly, and you have the choice of using either Form 5130.9 or Form 5130.26.
The due date for all operations reports is the 15th day after the end of the month in which it is due. For example, if you file your reports monthly, your March report must be filed by April 15. If you file your reports quarterly, your Quarter 3 report (which ends September), must be filed by October 15.
The TTB provides a list of the most common BROP reporting problems on their website. The most common mistakes are from math errors or misinterpreting what is required on the forms. Unfortunately, the forms are not intuitive and mistakes are easy to make. When in doubt, ask. Your TTB agent will be able to provide an official answer to your questions.
We’ve put together a pdf that explains the most common pitfalls people have with the BROP reports. Check it out and download it here.
Excise Tax – Form 5000.24 The standard due dates for filing Form 5000.24 and paying tax is twice per month (semi-monthly) except for September. In September, taxes are due a total of 3 times and these dates vary depending on if you plan on mailing a check or paying by electronic funds transfer (EFT). More information about September rules can be found in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) §25.164a.
If you paid less than $50,000 last calendar year and you plan on owing less than $50,000 this year, than you have the option to pay taxes and file your return quarterly.
As of January 1, 2017, if you paid less than $1,000 last calendar year and you plan on owing less than $1,000 this year, then you have the option to pay taxes and file your return annually.
If for some reason your brewery bonds become insufficient (bonds are a whole other discussion) or if you become delinquent on tax payments, you will be “asked” to start pre-paying your taxes. You will then need to file an Excise Tax report and prepay tax before any consumption or sale. Additionally, you will also have to file an additional semi-monthly Excise Tax report that essentially reviews all of the prepaid taxes during that period. Your job as a brewer can quickly turn into that of an accountant if you are required to pre-pay your taxes. Avoid at all costs!
The due dates for the semi-monthly and quarterly tax scenarios can be found at http://www.ttb.gov/tax_audit/fed_ex_tax_due.shtml. The due date for the annual return option is January 14 of the next year.
The standard tax rate for beer is $18 per barrel. You may qualify for a reduced tax rate of $7 per barrel for the first 60,000 barrels you produce if you plan to produce less than 2 million barrels in that calendar year. After you’ve reached 60,000 barrels the tax rate jumps back to $18 per barrel.
Note that an Excise Tax Return form 5000.24 is due even if no tax is owed!
Staying organized is the key If there’s some advice that I can give to help brewers with their taxes and reporting, the first piece would be to get organized!
Brewers are required by the TTB to keep daily records. However, most of the brewers I’ve talked to don’t do enough organizing up front before the taxes and reports are due. Because of this, the typical amount of time it takes to prepare these reports correctly is one or 2 days.
Invest in more filing cabinets than you think will be necessary or spend some time brushing up on your spreadsheet skills, so that all of the information is at your fingertips when you need it. Few things are more frustrating than trying to hunt down a missing brew log under a looming deadline from the TTB.
The second piece of advice I can offer is to give our product, TTB Tamer, a test drive with a free trial. TTB Tamer is an online tool where all of your brewery operations reports can be stored as they happen. Then when a report is due, all you need to do is click “print” and the correct forms are printed out for you.
After that, just mail in the form with any payments. This can significantly reduce the amount of time required for generating reports and determining how much tax is due.
In addition to Daily Records, Report of Operations, and Excise Tax form, TTB Tamer can help you with state reporting requirements.
More information about TTB Tamer can be found at ttbtamer.com.
So as you can see, tax and reporting requirements are definitely not small parts of the brewery operation. I hope this helps shed some light on what the processes are like.
NOTE: There have been ongoing efforts to reduce the tax rate for small brewers. As of the time of this writing the tax rates changes have yet taken place, but who knows what’s in store for 2017!
ED NOTE: This post was originally published on April 21, 2014. There have been significant enough changes that update this piece and change the date.
Image showing New Dollar Bill by Dave Winer on flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0) was modified from its original state.
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The post Microbrewery taxes simplified; the quick guide to the complicated world of beer taxes appeared first on MicroBrewr.
The last few posts were about email for breweries. Why your brewery needs an email list. What your brewery can do with an email list. And how to keep your email list healthy. Now I’m going to talk about the number one tool I’ve used to grow the MicroBrewr email list automatically. You can use this strategy for your brewery email list, too.
And there’s a discount code for OptinMonster to get 10% off too! So read all the way to the end, to find out how to get 10% off OptinMonster.
Alex Standiford make an excellent case for using email marketing to fill your taproom and ultimately, sell more beer. Still not sure how important an email list can be for your brewery’s marketing? I was on East Brother Beer Company’s email list long before they opened. When they finally made their debut, I was in their taproom within a week.
My #1 tool for growing an email list The best tool I can recommend to collect email addresses on your website is OptinMonster.
You know those pesky pop-ups that ask if you want a special something, but you have to enter your name and email address? Well, they work wonders for growing your email list. Everybody hates them, but every webmaster knows they work.
It’s a simple thing. A visitor can click the X to opt out if she doesn’t want to bother with it. And if your offer is enticing, she will gladly sign up to your email list in exchange for your special offer.
Maybe you want to give a coupon to redeem at your taproom. Or invitations to special events. Or the homebrew recipe to your most popular beer. Create an outstanding offer, advertise it on your website, and watch your email list grow while you sleep.
“The first place to add your incentive is on your website,” says Alex Standiford. “Add a signup form in a prominent place in your website.”
That’s where OptinMonster comes in.
OptinMonster has several options. Pop-ups can be set to load on only certain pages, or can be set to load after a certain amount of time. Their “exit intent” revolutionized the game by displaying when a visitor was about to leave the site. Now their “welcome gate” claims to double the rate of new subscribers. That’s just a few.
And of course, mobile optimization is super important. Almost half of the MicroBrewr email subscribers come from mobile (currently 47%!), so pop-ups are designed to work for those visitors, too.
If you want to see how well OptinMonster is working, it’s super easy to see all the stats and what’s working best. Plus A/B split testing let’s you do multiple similar opt-in forms, let them run a while, then switch to the ones that work best or make adjustments accordingly.
If all this sounds a bit salesy, perhaps it’s because I’m pretty excited about OptinMonster. I’ve been using it on MicroBrewr since 2014. And the number of subscribers doubled right away. It doubled again after I improved the incentive offer. Obviously, I couldn’t be happier with OptinMonster.
If you want to grow your brewery’s email list from your website, you have to use pop-ups. I recommend OptinMonster, it’s simply the best I’ve found.
Discount code for OptinMonster – 10% off! The folks at OptinMonster are not only cool, but super generous. They agreed to give us a 10% off coupon when purchasing OptinMonster.
Click on this link and check out OptinMonster.
And be sure to use this discount code for OptinMonster to get 10% off: WPB10
Now I have a question for you: What special incentive will you offer through OptinMonster pop-ups, to grow your email list?
In the comments section below, tell me how you will use OptinMonster. What incentive will you offer to new subscribers? Type your idea below and share with us all the details so others can adapt the idea.
Image showing email_icon by Gregg O’Connell on flickr (CC BY 2.0) was modified from its original state.
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Michael Altman was in the industry for years when he bought a brewpub. Now he’s been operating Iron Springs Pub & Brewery in Fairfax, California for 12 years. Before they opened he had to have back surgery and totally reinvent his role for the brewpub.
“You really need to live, breathe and be the beer.” [Tweet This]
“The first 6 months we owned that pub, every single day I called my wife and said we’re selling this place, I can’t stand this, this is ridiculous,” recounts Michael. “Thank God for my wife who was my rock.”
He went through 3 back surgeries. “It was hard for me to hang up my mash paddle,” says Michael. He still does some brewing, but mostly leaves the hard work to others.
Hiring employees and letting them do the work you hire them to do has been essential to Iron Springs’ growth. They are on pace to produce approximately 2,000 BBLs of beer this year, which is an increase of 20 percent since last year. They have 16 taps for 10 draft beers, one cask, and 4 handcrafted sodas.
Iron Springs Pub & Brewery now has 50 staff, 4 are in the brewery. To hire more staff Michael recommends:
- Figure out what needs to be done
- Figure out who you are going to hire for each task
- Hire people who can do the job
- Let them do the job you hired them to do
It sounds simple, but it’s important to follow through and let others take your load off.
Something else that has been very helpful for Iron Springs is the give back Tuesday. Every Tuesday they give 10% of profits to a local non-profit organization that focuses on education or the environment. Iron Springs has donated $160,000 in the last 6 years. “We love and we really believe in it, and that really translates to the community,” says Michael. “They really believe in it and they want to come out and support it. It’s a win-win for everybody.”
Michael says certainly, “There’s no way in the world that I would started a brewery in today’s market.” There is too much competition, he says, compared to when he started. Although he does say, “A brewpub will work in neighborhood,” you have to have good branding.
You have to figure out why people are coming to your place, and really focus on your story. The 3 keys are:
- Good ambiance
- Good service
- Good food and beer
Brewery specs: Kettle size: 10 BBL.
Size and quantity of fermentation tanks: 9, 10-BBL fermenters.
Size and quantity of bright tanks: 10, 10-BBL serving tanks.
Annual brewing capacity/last year’s production: 1,820 BBL.
Square footage: 5,000 sq. ft. in the entire pub, 1,100 sq. ft. in the brewery.
Years in operation: 12 years (opened October 2004).
Listener question: From Awhile Pandey: When can you tell whether you are known as a brewery pub with exciting beer that people like, or you have become known more as a restaurant with beer just as a side thing? Is there any research on what kind of food formats and themes go well with a microbrewery pub layout?
Can’t-go-without tool: Rubber boots, Bosch.
Book recommendation: * Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business by Danny Meyer. * Designing Great Beers: The Ultimate Guide to Brewing Classic Beer Styles by Ray Daniels. * Michael Jackson’s Great Beer Guide by Michael Jackson and Sharon Lucas. * Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers: The Secrets of Ancient Fermentation by Brewers Publications.
Check out the entire list of recommended books, click here.
An upcoming beer style: Session beer
Other resources: * 61 Brewers Speak Out: What I Wish I’d Know Before Starting a Brewery, MicroBrewr, February 9, 2014. * McMenamins Pubs, Oregon and Washington. * Mobile Bottling Source, Kirkland, Washington. * Mountain Sun Pubs & Breweries, Boulder, Colorado. * Packaging Design Happy Hour, AIGA, March 20, 2015.
You can reach Michael Altman and Iron Springs Pub & Brewery at: * ironspringspub.com * Facebook: ironspringspub * Twitter: ironspringspub * Instagram: ironspringsbrewery * Untappd: IronSprings
Sponsors:
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So now you understand that email must be an integral part of any craft beer marketing plan. And we’ve given you 51 ways to use email. Now in this last of 3 posts by Alex Standiford, you’ll develop a deeper understanding for the nuances of running a healthy email list for your brewery.
Alex Standiford is a web designer and a WordPress developer. He loves craft beer and wants to contribute to the community in a way that will make an impact. One way he does that is through his Brewio WordPress Theme for breweries and his Easy Beer Lister WordPress plugin, which can easily load your entire beer menu onto your website. The plugin is completely customizable to pick which beers are on tap today, and it can display your beer menu on a TV screen in your taproom. Both Brewio WordPress theme and the Easy Beer Lister WordPress plugin are free.
How to build a healthy email list for your craft brewery My favorite strategy to keep a taproom full is with an effective email marketing strategy. This is a powerful tool that keeps people engaged in your brewery, and gives you plenty of opportunities to promote your business. Email campaigns are only as effective as the size and health of your email list, so in this article we’re going to talk about how to build a healthy email list for your craft brewery.
What you should not do with an email list Although an email list can be purchased online, don’t do it. First off, it’s illegal in the US to mass-email an individual without their prior permission to do so. That’s called spam. If you do this, you will get blacklisted and will lose your digital “license to send marketing emails,” and that’s just not good.
Besides, it’s just not a cool thing to do. Nothing will turn off a customer faster than bugging them about your business offerings without their expressed interest in the first place. Annoying your customer is never a good way to promote your business, so avoid it.
Now that we’ve established what not to do, let’s talk about ways you can build your email list.
Offer a compelling incentive to join your email list When faced with an opportunity to get added to your list, your customer will probably ask “What’s in it for me?” In other words, “Why should I sign up for your email list?”
To develop a large email list, give away something that you don’t give away to anyone else. These exclusive offers will make your customers want to subscribe to your email list. You could offer something special, such as a special membership or first dibs on invites to exclusive keg tapping of new batches. For a good example of this, check out Dogfish Head’s Mug Club offering.
Related: I have built a 20-point list of irresistible brewery offerings that will help you grow your list. You can get that here.
Start with your website The first place to add your incentive is on your website. Add a signup form in a prominent place on your website, and show your compelling offer. Try to keep anything you write about the offer focused on what’s in it for the customer. Explain in clear terms exactly why it would be a good decision for them to sign up to your email list. If possible, place the form where it will be seen by as many of your website visitors as possible. Tell anyone who enjoys your beer about your great offer to join the email list.
RELATED: My #1 tool for growing an email list
Use your brewery Create a print version of your online form, and place it in your taproom. Every day or so, add the new names to your email list. This straightforward strategy has 3 primary benefits.
First, since the opt-in form is at your physical location, it’s more likely that your list will be full of local people. The local customer is the most likely customer to visit again, so it’s important that you find ways to build a list of locals. By nature, a website is global, so it can be difficult to keep your list dedicated to the nearby customers.
The second advantage is that you can watch people interact with your offering, and get unique insight on what is or is not working. This will allow you to make adjustments to your offering, both online and in the taproom.
Third, this gives you the chance to not only capture traffic on your website, but also traffic that comes through your taproom. Not everyone will visit your website, or feel compelled to sign up for your email list until they’ve visited your taproom. This is where most people form their opinion of your brewery, so it’s a great place to ask them to stay in touch.
Leverage events Events can be a huge opportunity to build your email list. I wrote about how to build an email list from beer festivals. Offer what you normally offer on your website opt-in form, but add an extra bonus incentive just for signing up at the event. People are in a hurry to move on to the next booth, so you need to make a compelling reason to stop them long enough to sign up. This bonus offering should cost little, or nothing at all. And be sure the added incentive is reason enough to stay subscribed to the email list. The problem with offering swag is that it does not give the person a reason to stay on the list, and you will end up spending a lot of money on a list of customers that may unsubscribe just after signing up. Make it a goal to obtain valuable email addresses, and your list will stay healthy, and will continue to grow.
Email frequently (but not too frequently) Once you get a list of people signed up, deliver that special incentive you promised, and start sending some content. Once you have a person on your list, you must commit to sending messages to them with some frequency. If you don’t, they will forget who you are and why they signed up. Soon your email will be marked as spam, which possibly results in your domain getting blacklisted.
On the flip side, if you email them too frequently, people will get annoyed by the barrage of emails filling their inbox and will unsubscribe. And maybe mark you as spam! The key is to find the best frequency for your list. I typically recommend no more than 2 emails a week starting out, and no less than 2 a month. This is a fairly safe starting point for almost any business, including your amazing craft brewery.
Send more than event invites I mentioned in another article that email is a transactional medium. Technically, you could send nothing but event invites to your list, but your list will probably see some unsubscribes, and lackluster growth.
Most people who sign up for your email list expect to be sold to, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t offer some value as well. For example, an email with a homebrew recipe of your most popular beer doesn’t directly bring people to your taproom. But it does build relationships, which in time, can lead to better interactions and strengthened relationships.
Marketing, at its core, is getting people to know, like, and trust you. Send emails to make all 3 of those things happen, and you’ll find better results in the long run.
Image showing Little Creatures Brewery Patio by Monica D. on flickr (CC BY 2.0) was modified from its original state.
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So now you understand that email must be an integral part of any beer marketing plan. But what can you do with email?
In case you’re still wondering, Alex Standiford and I brainstormed 51 different ways that you can use email for your brewery. Keep reading the entire list below, then check out the next post to learn how to build a healthy email list for your brewery.
Alex Standiford is a web designer and a WordPress developer. He loves craft beer and wants to contribute to the community in a way that will make an impact. One way he does that is through his Brewio WordPress Theme for breweries and his Easy Beer Lister WordPress plugin, which can easily load your entire beer menu onto your website. The plugin is completely customizable to pick which beers are on tap today, and it can display your beer menu on a TV screen in your taproom. Both Brewio WordPress theme and the Easy Beer Lister WordPress plugin are free.
51 things your brewery can do with email The goal of marketing is to get someone to think of you first when they want a product. Email campaigns are a great way to achieve that.
The best email campaigns build relationships and educate your customers. Event promotion is important for your fill-your-taproom strategy, but unless you build a good relationship with your customers in the first place, nobody is going to care about the events that you email them about.
The best brewery email strategies focus on 1 of 3 different types of emails.
- An email that builds relationships with customers
- An email that educates customers about your story and your product
- An email that invites customers to visit you in person
If your emails focus on a healthy balance of all 3 of these types of emails, your list will stay healthy and your taproom will stay full! Here’s 51 different emails that you can send to your customers, organized by each of the 3 different email types listed above.
Related: If you’re looking for some information on how to build your email list, I have written a 20-Point Guide to Building Your Brewery Email List that is packed with information on how to do just that.
Use email to build relationships with your customers Winning awards for your beer helps gain notoriety and reputation, but there are more impactful ways to sell more beer. Simply put, if your customers like you, they will choose your beer first. These emails are designed to do just that.
- Share food recipes for pairing with your beer. Especially your customer’s own recipes (with permission and a kind link to her Twitter or Untappd account).
- Share recipes of your beer scaled for homebrew.
- Offer a friendly homebrew competition on one of your beers with your shared recipes.
- Link to a special recent post on your social media.
- Share photos from a recent event.
- Share funny/crazy stories, and behind the scenes happenings at the brewery. Lagunitas Brewing is especially good at this, and their colorful stories on their labels has a profound impact on their branding.
- If you play music at your brewery, share your playlist with everyone via Spotify. Introduce the playlist with a primer about the feel you want the playlist to bring.
- Ask your customers to help you name your next upcoming brew.
- Give your creative customers a chance to create a label. Rich Weber from Sierra Blanca Brewing Company shared some great points about this on MicroBrewr Podcast 019.
- Use SurveyMonkey to send a free survey and gain valuable demographics and consumer insight.
- Ask what their favorite beer is.
- Ask what beer they want you to brew in the coming season.
- Ask for ideas about the taproom.
- Ask, ask, ask. Learn about your customers so you can provide a product they want and serve their desires. Who knows, maybe your customers want a nice quiet place to do some work and have a beer or two. You’ll never know until you ask.
- Well wishes for national holidays.
- Well wishes for beer days like National Beer Day and International Stout Day.
- Well wishes for other weird “holidays.” You can find a ton of these at com.
- April Fools Day is a great opportunity to send a faux beer release. Visit http://www.strangebrew.ca/beername.php, and use it to help come up with a wacky beer name. (e.g., Farty Cinco de Mayo Yellow Extra Special Bitter)
Use email to educate your customers These emails are great to teach customers about your beer. You will also be able to gauge how interested or knowledgeable they are in different aspects of beer, which will help you figure out what events you should host.
- Talk about common beer traits, and what pairs well (or not so well) with them. (e.g., If you’re sensitive to spice, avoid drinking an IPA with your buffalo wings.)
- Profile new releases, in emails to your customers.
- Profile a staff member.
- Explain common brewery terms, such as IBU, ABV, and OG.
- Tell the story of your name.
- Share why you started the brewery.
- Talk about your logo.
- Describe your brewing process.
- Talk about how temperature impacts beer flavor.
- Talk about different drinks that can be made with your beer. (e.g., a stout float)
- Talk about when it makes sense to choose a lower ABV.
- Talk about where you source your ingredients.
- Weekly hours of operation or changes to schedule.
- Explain the story behind what inspired you to create the beer you made. Dogfish Head’s Ancient Ales series is a great example of this.
- How to savor a beer.
- How to pair beer with food.
- How to identify “off flavors” in beer.
- How to age beer. Especially if you have a barrel-aged program or if you offer beers that would age well.
- Talk about glass shapes, and why they exist. This could be a great chance to sell branded glassware, if you have it!
RELATED: My #1 tool for growing an email list
Use email to fill your taproom Be sure to look beyond a single email. A lot of the emails in this post could be used in combination for hosting an event at your brewery. For example, you could write something that talks about how temperature impacts beer flavor, and then host an event where people purchase a growler, and then drink it over the course of a few hours, noting the difference in flavor with each glass.
- Invitations to tastings. Offer VIP early entry for your email subscribers.
- Coupon for a free tasting flight for a friend when you buy one tasting flight or pint for yourself.
- Set an exclusive time to pick up pre-orders.
- Offer a free branded product, such as a glass or a T-shirt to customers who buy something, such as a tasting flight, or growler, on a specific date. Only notify your email subscribers about your freebie.
- Host creative events, such as jam sessions and open mic. If you’re reserving slots for the event, allow your email list to reserve well before everyone else.
- Host a league or competition for Cornhole or another fun game. Keep all members updated via email on the status of the league.
- Invite people to a themed event like Oktoberfest. Serve beer specific to the theme. Offer early access to email subscribers.
- Send a series of “beer school” emails, educating customers on the basics of beer, then invite them to a beer event hosted by the brewmaster, or a Certified Cicerone®.
- Host a cheese and beer pairing event. Have a certified cheese expert come in to talk about the different cheeses.
- Host guests such as beer writers, local chefs, or collaboration brewers.
- Host a listening party of your favorite new CD, or a viewing party of the season finale or your favorite TV series.
- Special events just for email subscribers.
- Announce food such as new menu items, menu changes, or food truck schedule.
- Announce upcoming releases with VIP, early tasting and Q&A with the brewer just for email subscribers.
Strategy is key. Think through the emails you send out. Don’t just haphazardly send invites to events, prime your customers with informative emails first. Think about your campaign from start to finish, and consider all of the information that could be sent before the event date.
Pay attention to and track interactions with your customers to learn about their needs, and figure out what interests them most. This will empower you to make informed decisions about what events to host, and when to host them. Soon you won’t have any difficulty keeping your taproom full.
Image showing found typewriter by Andy Smith on flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0) was modified from its orignal state.
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I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: if your brewery doesn’t have a website, it doesn’t exist. You know you also have to be at least on Facebook and Twitter. Instagram and Untappd also work well for many breweries. But don’t neglect email marketing as a key part of your online strategy.
Email is important for many reasons and Alex Standiford will illuminate the entire email strategy in the next 3 posts.
Alex Standiford is a web designer and a WordPress developer. He loves craft beer and wants to contribute to the community in a way that will make an impact. One way he does that is through his Brewio WordPress Theme for breweries and his Easy Beer Lister WordPress plugin, which can easily load your entire beer menu onto your website. The plugin is completely customizable to pick which beers are on tap today, and it can display your beer menu on a TV screen in your taproom. Both Brewio WordPress theme and the Easy Beer Lister WordPress plugin are free.
5 reasons every brewery needs an email list The inherent trouble with social media is that many breweries believe that it’s the only tool they need in-order to promote their business online. I hope to shred that belief apart in this article, and explain why you need to build your email list. Don’t get me wrong, social media has its place in online marketing, but not the best tool to actually convert people to visit your taproom. I have come up with 5 reasons why you need to put more time and effort into your email list.
After you read this article, if you want to learn more about how to build your email list check out my 20-point guide here. I promise that if you apply the information I show in this guide that it will help you get plenty of email subscribers.
Email gets more views According to Forrester, 90% of your emails get delivered to the target inbox, but only 2% of your Facebook fans see your posts in their News Feed. In other words, if you sent a message to 1,000 people on your email list, and then sent that exact same message to 1,000 people on your Facebook feed, 900 of your email subscribers would see the email message, but only 20 people would see the Facebook post.
To me, this is the #1 reason to build an email list. Why should you put so much effort and focus on a Facebook page, when only 2% of the users actually see what you’re sharing? Much of that effort would be better spent on growing an email list, where 90% of the people who chose to follow you will receive your message.
Email is a known as a transactional medium With email, people expect that you’re going to try to sell them something when you email them. In fact, 60% of people prefer to receive promotional content through email, compared to 20% who prefer social media. With more robust social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, there are many ways to connect with your business. If they choose to connect with you through an email subscription, they expect and want to be sold to.
According to MailChimp’s email marketing benchmarks, email campaigns across the board get a 22% open rate on-average, and 2.8% of those people click through to whatever it is you’re trying to send them. Not only is 22% higher than most social media platforms, those people are the ones who signed up for your list, expecting to be sold to.
When you promote an upcoming event via email, the people you’re reaching out to won’t mind. In fact, many of them are anticipating it, and will be glad to get that message. If your list is healthy, and you’re offering great products, you can expect to see some boost in taproom traffic from this strategy.
Email is a targeted medium One of the most outstanding features of email is segmentation. When you send an email, your list’s actions will tell you things. If you’re listening, you can use this information to determine which subscribers get which emails. This is powerful, because it allows you to send 3-5 different emails to the people on your list who actually want those emails, without flooding your subscriber’s inbox in the process.
For example, let’s say that you have a recipe that pairs exceedingly well with one of your beers and you want to share that recipe with your email list. Chances are, not everyone on your list cares about food and beer pairing, and many of them probably don’t want to be bothered with this information. Instead of sending the recipe to everyone on your list, you can keep your list healthy and happy by only sending the recipe to the people that you know would like to get food pairing recipes from you. This ensures that your subscribers are getting a great experience from you because you’re only sending them what they want to see.
It takes less time (if you do it right) My favorite thing about email marketing is the automation. Entire email campaigns can be automated if you plan them out ahead of time. This set it and forget it approach will save you time, and help you stay consistent with the execution of your strategy.
Another reason why email takes less time goes back to the expectations when someone signs up to an email list. Most people don’t want to receive an email every day, heck, I’d wager that most people want no more than 2 per week at most. To me, this means you get to cut the crap, and only send the best quality content, and offerings at your disposal. Sending an email to your list is a conscious, strategic move with a clear purpose, which makes it extremely efficient, unlike many other strategies out there.
RELATED: My #1 tool for growing an email list
It reaches your customers on mobile According to Pew Research Center, 92% of online adults use email. And 53% of those messages are read on-mobile. Most smartphone users have at least one email address on their phone, and every smartphone comes with an email app out of the box. Many of those people receive a notification when they receive an email from that address. This means that many people who you send an email to will be notified about your email instantly, and many of them will look at it right away.
Conclusion Email has many strengths that are unique to the platform. The numbers don’t lie—email offers consistency. It’s relatively easy to know what to expect when you send a message out, and that visibility can make your business grow in a predictable manner. It naturally works well with social media because email attracts customers from a different angle than most social media sites. This makes it the best companion for any online marketing strategy.
Image showing Studious by Bruce Guenter on flickr (CC BY 2.0) was modified from its orignal state.
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TRANSCRIPT:
Welcome to MicroBrewr podcast. Where we talk about everything craft beer related, but especially for if want to start your own microbrewery or take your existing brewery to the next level.
As usual, I’m Nathan Pierce, the host of MicroBrewr Podcast.
So I just want to give you a short update today. This is going to be kind of a “state of the podcast” address to let you know some recent developments in my life that could potentially affect the future of MicroBrewr.
So I just want to be transparent and honest and let you know what to expect.
This is going to be just a short review of the past year for MicroBrewr and also an update of my plans to start a brewery, because some people ask about that. Myself wanting to start a brewery, has sort of become the premise of a lot of MicroBrewr, so I’ll talk briefly about that.
MicroBrewr in 2015 Before we get to that, let’s sort of recap the last year of MicroBrewr. I want to use this time and sort of step back to reflect and see what sorts of lessons we have gotten from the last year of learning how to start a brewery.
At the end of 2014, on New Year’s Even we had a similar episode, the year in review episode. It was a good time to reflect and project on the future at the time of MicroBrewr. That was episode 43 of the podcast, I had done 30 episodes since taking over for MicroBrewr founder Joe Shelerud. Now this is episode 90, so we’ve done 47 episodes since then.
We started off the year with episodes of MicroBrewr Podcast organized sort of in series. We had series on:
- Breweries as co-ops
- Podcasting for breweries
- Women in craft beer
- Marketing and promotions
- Business plans, funding, and insurance
- Contract brewing
- Gluten-free beer and cider
Among these series we had other interviews about
- Trademark issues
- Mobile canning
- Organizing a great opening night
- Making whiskey from craft beer
- A bunch of other breweries
So we’ve learned a ton of great info. Lots of things just never would have occurred to me.
The sense of community in the craft beer industry is really prolific and prevalent. Community really is exemplified the most when the business is organized as a cooperative. There a few ways that can happen, like a consumer co-op or a worker owned co-op, but either way, it’s all about people working together to help everyone out. Costs as well as profits are spread out more evenly, everyone contributes and everyone has a sense of ownership and pride. So it really brings out the best work, the best product quality, and the most benefits for a larger number of people.
Anyway, it was really cool to see how much the co-op movement is growing within craft beer. Just through the course of this past year, there are a lot more co-op breweries starting all over the country.
Another thing I have learned is that cider is really cool! We started the gluten-free series with Bard’s Tale Beer Company, but then we went into cider and talked with Common Cider Company, 101 Cider House and Wandering Aengus Ciderworks. Some of the stats we heard about the growth of cider, even just that cider was way more popular than beer in the U.S. before Prohibition, is pretty cool. The growth alone, from a business standpoint, makes you gotta look. But something that stands out the most for me is how cider is sort of closer to a natural product, kind of the way wine is viewed in that regard, but cider attracts the cool, open-minded, experimental people of the craft beer world. So it’s like the best of both things. And that’s really attractive to me. The gluten-free aspect is a bonus because some people in my life are allergic to gluten. I can eat gluten, but it’s kind of a bummer to think they can’t enjoy most beers that I could have.
Anyway, we’ve learned so much this year. It’s so rewarding to receive emails from literally around the world telling me how much you have learned from the podcast and the blog, telling me your cool stories of starting your own brewery, or just thanking me for doing this.
I do put in a lot of time on MicroBrewr. Maybe someone else could do it more efficiently, I didn’t realize when I took this on that I was getting into the whole blogging world. Wow, what an eye-opening experience that has been.
There’s a whole segment of the population with online journals or full-on internet media outlets. Some people do it for fun on the side, some people make an ok living at it by itself. Believe it or not, some people are bringing in very lucrative incomes from blogging and podcasts and such. I am not one of those people.
With as many hours as I put in, MicroBrewr does make some money. It’s a little bit more than the expenses of just keeping it online.
MicroBrewr in 2016 So, this is where I’m going with that, I did get a job. It is not a job in the craft beer industry. It is a full-time job. I will be paid a good wage and I won’t descend into oblivion of despair.
I signed an offer letter with the City of San Francisco. I’ll be doing grants work, similar to what I was doing at my last job, where I worked for 7 years, so that’s where I’m most skilled in the workforce. And it feels really good to be gainfully employed again, and especially putting my skills to work, even though I haven’t yet started working. Hopefully by the time you hear this, I’ll be filling out the paperwork, going through orientation and all that stuff. I’m eager to do my best work and give them all I can to make the City of San Francisco an even better place. It’s a 3-year position and who knows, maybe continue after that.
I’m excited—and a little intimidated—to be moving to San Francisco. I’ve never lived in a big city before. It’s fun there. It’s diverse. It’s exciting. There are a lot of breweries, and cideries, and even a few distilleries. Not to mention the ocean and the Golden Gate Bridge and lots of bike lanes all these exciting things.
So please wish me luck, wish me well. I don’t know exactly when or if ever I’ll be able to start a brewery. Maybe if I don’t get to continue on with the City after 3 years, I’ll get to open a cidery then. Or maybe I’ll keep working for the City of San Francisco and open a brewery on my spare time like Marta Jankowska from ChuckAlek Independent Brewers. In the meantime, I have to give my employer my best work and this is my priority.
So this means, I’m seriously wondering how I’ll be able to keep MicroBrewr going.
The whole point of MicroBrewr was to learn how to start a brewery. And I learned some things.
If 2014 was the year of the nanobrewery for me, 2015 was the year of cider for me.
Before I started doing MicroBrewr Podcast, talking to brewers, brewery owners, and other experts from the craft beer industry every week, I was not open to a nanobrewery as a business model. I just thought it wasn’t profitable. But now I’ve talked to enough people who are making profits, that now I see it can be a good way to get off the ground, maybe just keep being a neighborhood brewery thing, but hopefully a stepping stone to larger things.
I also wasn’t open to cider. I thought it was too small of a niche, kind of a novelty, and just not that interesting. Now I see that the segment is growing explosively, and compared to other countries the U.S. has a ton of growth potential. Even just looking at where the U.S. was before prohibition, it looks like the U.S. cider market is not something to ignore. And people are doing some interesting things with cider, being really creative with it, bringing back some really neat recipes and fruits that almost disappeared and even doing brand new stuff that has never been done before with cider.
So if I have to stop producing new content on MicroBrewr, I hope I’ve learned enough to start a brewery—after 90 episodes I hope I’ve learned enough! At some point I have to stop learning and start doing. Hopefully there’s enough content to help you open the brewery of your dreams—maybe sooner than I. I hear from people who just found the podcast and they’re burning through an episode every day. They don’t have to wait a week for a new episode to come out like me and you who have caught up through the current ones.
Ok so where were we?
MicroBrewr in the future I want to keep doing MicroBrewr, I really do. I don’t want to let you down. It’s a lot of fun. If the episodes don’t come out on time, every Tuesday as they have been going, well, you know why. Work is my priority going forward.
Maybe I can try and find some help to take some of the tasks and make it easier to keep going. I don’t know, it’s a whole new world for me. I’m going back to work full-time for the first time in 2 1/2 years. And I’m moving to the big city and all of that. it’s going to be a huge adjustment in lots of ways.
I just looked back at that year in review episode, from New Year’s Eve last year, and I saw that I was looking for jobs all over, preferably a job in craft beer, but even a job in anything. And now I’ve got that. So we’re moving forward.
We’ll see what the future holds. Start your breweries, send me emails, I will live vicariously through you! We will drink good beer! Life will be good!
Image showing San Francisco. by Kathryn, on flickr (CC BY 2.0) was modified from its original state.
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Over a few beers, Tim Obert’s friend from college, Clint, told him that whiskey is actually made from cheap beer. They got to thinking, why not make whiskey from high-quality craft beer? Thus was born Seven Stills of SF, in San Francisco, California.
“I wish I would’ve taken on investment sooner.” [Tweet This]
Whiskey is a distilled spirit made from the fermented mash of usually malted grain, like beer. At first Tim and Clint were homebrewing in the backyard of Clint’s parent’s home, and “distilling that out, not really with the intention of starting a company, but just to see what happens.”
“Distilling,” says Tim, “is a hundred times simpler than brewing.”
To make whiskey from beer, they increase the temperature of beer to evaporate ethanol. The gaseous ethanol is then cooled to condense it back into a liquid. Different temperatures and different points in the process evaporate different material and different quality flavor.
“After a while,” recalls Tim, “Clint and I ended up having 30 different whiskeys and they were totally unique and were all, in my opinion, outstanding.”
“Everything that I had researched said that the base beer doesn’t have an impact on the flavor of the whiskey, which we’ve realized is just completely untrue. We can distill something like a chocolate oatmeal stout for instance, versus and IPA and there is no way that you could not tell the difference,” Tim laughs. “They’re completely different whiskeys.”
RELATED: MicroBrewr 047: A forty-year career at the epicenter of craft beer
Clint contributed the money he had saved for grad school, Tim pitched in a portion of his life savings, and they started Seven Stills of SF. For 2 years, they had a contract brewery make the beer. Then they had a contract distillery use the craft beer to make whiskey.
Seven Stills of SF currently produces about 120 cases of whiskey per month. They’re trying to increase production by 8 times.
They will be able to do it, now that they have their own 15-BBL brewhouse with fermenters and bright tanks. And they recently bought the largest still in San Francisco, a 300-gallon pot still.
They also have an entirely other line of vodka and bitters. Whereas whiskey is made from various grains, vodka is made from corn. Most of their bitters are made from vodka.
“Just for consistency sake, it makes sense to keep the 2 separate,” says Tim. “That’s part of the reason we hired different designers to work on the [labels on the] bottles.”
With so much expansion and growth, Tim says one thing he wishes he would have done differently was taken on investors sooner.
RELATED: MicroBrewr 067: How to find investors for a brewery
“We’ve been trying to grow off of just what we put into the company organically for the last 2 years, and it’s just painfully slow.”
Getting investors urged Seven Stills of SF to:
- Develop a business plan
- Calculate budgets
- Get organized
- Get something bigger off the ground
Part of having investors is putting together an advisory board. A formal advisory board is a set of people to whom you can seek advice on the business. Tim recommends finding experts in different areas such as:
- Banking
- Design
- Marketing
- Social media
“I definitely wouldn’t recommend giving up too much equity right off the bat,” advises Tim, “but give them something, and incentive instead of just getting counsel from them.”
“Just kind of building a team you can go and ask questions about when you have something come up. Because, I mean, it’s kind of stupid to keep reinventing the wheel with all this stuff.”
Brewery specs: Kettle size: 15 BBL.
Size and quantity of fermentation tanks: 2, 15-BBL fermenters.
Size and quantity of bright tanks: 2, 15-BBL bright tanks.
Annual brewing capacity/last year’s production: 3,120 BBL/year of beer. 4,836 gallons/year of whiskey.
Square footage: 4,400 sq. ft.
Years in operation: 2 years (opened August 2013).
Listener question: From Jimmy Batte: What’s the best advice you have been given or have to give since operating a brewery?
Can’t-go-without tool: Pallet jack.
Book recommendation: * Alt Whiskeys: Alternative Whiskey Recipes and Distilling Techniques for the Adventurous Craft Distiller by Darek Bell, Amy Lee Bell, and Pete Rodman. * The Startup Playbook: Secrets of the Fastest-Growing Startups from Their Founding Entrepreneurs by David Kidder. * Raising the Bar: Integrity and Passion in Life and Business: The Story of Clif Bar Inc. by Gary Erickson. * Mission in a Bottle: The Honest Guide to Doing Business Differently–and Succeeding by Seth Goldman and Barry Nalebuff.
Check out the entire list of recommended books, click here.
An upcoming beer style: Craft beer whiskey
Other resources: * Whiskey Informer, whiskey reviews, whisky reviews, and whiskey-like products. * Anchor Distilling Company, San Francisco, California. * Distillery No. 209, San Francisco, California. * Alamanac Beer Co., San Francisco, California. * Hermitage Brewing Company, San Jose, California. * The Bruery, Orange County, California. * Sante Adairius Rustic Ales, Capitola, California. * California’s 10 Best Breweries, Symmetry50, February 11, 2015. * Russian River Brewing Co., Santa Rosa, California. * Snake Bite, TW Pitcher’s Brewing Company, Saint Helena, California. * CircleUp, equity-based crowdfunding. * businessadvising.org, volunteer business advisors, mentors, and concultants. * Corsair Artisan Distillery, Nashville, Tennessee. * Future directions for brewers – Go gluten free, DSM.
You can reach Tim Obert and Seven Stills of SF at: * www.sevenstillsofsf.com * Facebook: sevenstillsofsf * Twitter: SevenStillsofSF * Instagram: sevenstills
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The post MicroBrewr 089: Make whiskey from high-quality craft beer appeared first on MicroBrewr.
Andrew Huerter comes from a family of brewers. His parents were founding members of the Kansas City Beer Meisters homebrew club and his dad won a blue ribbon for one of his beers. Now Drew is following in their footsteps. He worked at a handful of breweries and before helping put together BrainDead Brewing in Dallas, Texas.
“Find a way into an operating brewery.” [Tweet This]
Some of the audio was lost due to technical difficulties with the call. Here are notes from the audio podcast and the parts that got left out.
One of the biggest difficulties was the city permitting processes. The city was concerned about the explosive hazards of grain dust.
BrainDead Brewing was required to submit a certified engineer’s report verifying that the explosive hazard was below the threshold.
Just a few years ago in 2011, there were only 3 breweries in North Texas. Now there are 40, and just 2 independent brewpubs in Dallas-Fort Worth area, says Drew. Perhaps the city is experiencing growing pains from and industry that has grown a lot in a very short time.
RELATED: MicroBrewr 085: Starting a brewery is a full-time job
Drew emphasizes the important of details when budgeting for your startup brewery. His biggest mistake was missing a line item on the budget.
Although they had budgeted for the purchase of a glycol chiller, they forgot to include installation costs. That amounted to a $50,000 mistake.
On the other hand, the best idea was to start out with a focus on making ales. It’s a proven model, says Drew, but these days it’s done often. Drew says ales are easy drinking and really approachable, so BrainDead Brewing could sell a lot of them to establish themself in the market.
Listener question: If you could ask one question to every brewer or brewery owner, what would you ask? Let me know.
Can’t-go-without tool: 1.5-hp single phase pump by CPE Systems Inc.
Book recommendation: * Principles of Brewing Science: A Study of Serious Brewing Issues by George Fix.
Check out the entire list of recommended books, click here.
An upcoming beer style: Pilsner
Other resources: * Kansas City Beer Meisters, homebrew club. * Morgan Street Brewery, St. Louis, Missouri. * The Schlafly Tap Room, St. Louis, Missouri. * Deep Ellum Brewing Co., Dallas, Texas. * Foeder Crafters of America, St. Louis, Missouri. * Heavy Riff Brewing Company, St. Louis, Missouri.
You can reach Drew Huerter and BrainDead Brewing at: * braindeadbrewing.com * Facebook: braindeadbrew * Twitter: braindeadbrew * Instagram: braindeadbrew * Untappd: BrainDeadBrewing
Sponsors:
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At 55 years old Ken Carson tried to get a job at a brewery, but nobody would hire him—even for volunteer. So with no brewing nor restaurant experience, he started Nexus Brewery in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
“I fell in love with the concept of beer and community.” [Tweet This]
Ken did have some business experience: he was president of a small bank. He joined the bank in their first year and helped it grow from $7 million in assets to $150 million and 5 branches.
When Ken saw an ad for making a batch of beer at the local Kelly’s Brew Pub, he went and tried it for fun. He never knew someone could make their own beer. And he got the bug.
While working for the bank, Ken often traveled for work and always toured breweries in every city he went. After touring about 150 breweries, he though he wanted to do something different. So he cashed in the stock he had saved for retirement and convinced his wife to let him start a brewery.
RELATED: 61 Brewers Speak Out: What I Wish I’d Known Before Starting A Brewery
“So I had a good background in business,” says Ken, “but absolutely no experience in either one of these 2 businesses that I was getting into.”
Ken says there are 2 things anyone needs to start a brewery:
- You need to know the numbers
- You need to have good customer service
During his time at the bank, he had required hundreds of businesses to write business plans. Now he was on the other end, needing to write a business plan for his brewery. He used the online tools provided by the U.S. Small Business Administration.
“When you’re thinking customer service, it’s to produce the best beer you can,” explains Ken. “And we’re trying our best to produce the best food that we can.”
One thing the SBA materials asked was how Ken would differentiate his business from the competition. And food was one way that Nexus Brewery is differentiating themselves.
“I started seeing new breweries opening. I said, ‘This is going to be a problem if all the breweries get up here and I’m not different, I’m just like everybody else.’ So I picked a different food and made it unique.”
Nexus Brewery has what they call “New Mexican soul food,” a blend of foods from their African American heritage with local flavors of New Mexico.
They started out with 10 items on the menu, and kept adding more as customers made requests and suggestions.
Ken said it’s working out really well. “It’s distinguished us from all the other breweries in town.” It’s also helpful that they are serving a type of food that that is not normally associated with brewing industry.
Brewery specs: Kettle size: 7 BBL.
Size and quantity of fermentation tanks: 4, 7-BBL fermenters; 2, 15-BBL fermenters.
Size and quantity of bright tanks: 7 Grundies; 6, 15-BBL bright tanks.
Annual brewing capacity/last year’s production: 650 BBL.
Square footage: 2,500 sq. ft. for the brewery.
Years in operation: 4.5 years (opened May 2011).
Listener question: From Jeff Lennon: Why did you choose the brewpub or production brewery model? What factors led to that decision?
Can’t-go-without tool: Victorinox Swiss Army Super Tinker Pocket Knife.
Book recommendation: * The Brewers Association’s Guide to Starting Your Own Brewery by Dick Cantwell.
Check out the entire list of recommended books, click here.
An upcoming beer style: Scottish Ale
Other resources: * Kelly Brew Pub, Albuquerque, New Mexico. * Paul Farnsworth, brewery consultant. * Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, Food Network. * Marble Brewery, Albuquerque, New Mexico. * Create Your Business Plan, including a step-by-step tool, U.S. Small Business Administration.
You can reach Ken Carson Jr. and Nexus Brewery at: * nexusbrewery.com * Facebook: nexusbrewery * Twitter: Nexusbrewery * Instagram: nexusbrewery * Untappd: NexusBrewery
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The post MicroBrewr 087: Differentiate your brewpub with unique menu items appeared first on MicroBrewr.
Nick Gunn and his wife were working for her family’s winery. They had the idea to start growing apples for cider. One of the cideries to whom they were selling apples decided to close down and they offered to sell the business to Nick and his wife who moved Wandering Aengus Ciderworks to Salem, Oregon.
“Cider is a really exciting proposition for a lot of investors.” [Tweet This]
Now they have two brands of cider.
Wandering Aengus is the traditional brand of cider. The Wandering Aengus brand has ciders that are more astringent, more bitter, and higher in alcohol content. “For the wine drinkers, it’s something that’s interesting,” says Nick.
Anthem Cider is a lighter style for people who aren’t used to ciders. These are less acidic and have lower alcohol content. This brand is marketed toward to craft beer consumers. “Beer drinkers,” says Nick, “are much more adventurous and willing to try just about anything that’s out there.”
They package Anthem ciders mostly in kegs for sale on draft. The goal is to get the word out for distribution in smaller packaging. “It’s a pretty basic model a lot of people have used,” says Nick.
“Anthem is a little more on the adventurous side,” Nick describes. “And that’s also a part of marketing to people who like craft beer.”
In addition to straight apple cider, Anthem also has pear, cherry and hopped ciders. They’re do some progressive forays like gin and whiskey barrel-aged ciders, as well as ciders fermented with bee pollen.
In contrast, “Wandering Aengus is super traditional,” Nick says, “It’s just those apples fermented without anything else added to them. And those apples are so rare we don’t really want to mess with them in the first place, they kind of speak for themselves.”
Finding good, traditional cider apples is difficult, but Nick is pushing the market.
“Most of the old heirloom apples have been ripped out in favor for Granny Smith and other dessert apples,” he says. “We’re trying to get people to plant some newer [apple trees]. We’re trying to bring back some of the older, better flavored varieties.”
Nick’s favorite apple ciders are blends of sharp apples, bittersweet apples, and aromatic apples.
“You kind of want to blend in a little bit of sharp, a little bit of bitter, a little bit of aromatics,” Nick advises. “That’s a part of the art of cider making, is it’s a blending process. Because there’s not a lot of apples that just make a great cider straight up.”
Some of the high brix, high acidity apple varieties that they use are:
- Golden Russet
- Wickson Crab
- Cox’s Orange Pippin
- Newtown Pippin
- Calville Blanc d’Hiver
“These heirloom sharps… is a really [high] sweetness level and acidity is off the charts,” comments Nick.
But these sharp apples don’t have a lot of tannins. Bittersweet apples contribute tannins to the cider.
Some of the bittersweet apples they use for tannins are:
- Muscat de Bernay
- Muscadet de Dieppe
- Yarlington Mill
- Dabinett
- Herefordshire Redstreak
“Those apples taste like crap!” exclaims Nick. “They really are horrible, because they have so much bitterness.”
“I’m being evangelical about planting cider apples. That’s really the future of really high quality cider in America.”
While Nick is evangelizing about high-quality, hand-crafted, traditional ciders, a different style of cider is gaining momentum across the country. Large industrial companies are making cider with additives and diluted with water.
While the product sells well on a large scale, it is expanding the overall market and demand for cider. As the larger brands reach into previously untapped markets, they create new spaces for all cider products.
“Their cider is a lot cheaper,” says Nick. “We could never compete on price because we’re using 100% juice. But what we can do is offer a different product. And maybe that’s a graduating step for the consumer.”
RELATED: MicroBrewr 048: Package your beer cheap and easy with mobile canning
“The growth in some of these larger brands has just been astronomical because a lot of the place they’re putting cider there never even existed a cider in the first place.”
“Every single chain store, every 711, every place now has cider. Cider is on the lips of every one. It’s on TV now—it was never on TV before, like, 2 years ago.”
“Even if [cider] gets to 5 percent of the market, we will be gigantic,” Nick predicts. “Over in England, cider is around 20 percent of alcohol consumption. France is about 17 percent. So we have a long ways to go in America. We were just at 0.3 percent about 3 years ago and we’ve gotten to one percent now. So the climb now is just inevitable.”
There hasn’t been a lot of quality at quantity. And now that that is exists, distributors are staring to notice, buyers are noticing, the whole market place takes note.”
As overall demand for cider increases, and a wider variety of cider products becomes more popular, the cider companies are able make larger quantities at lower prices.
Nick’s strategy is to have meaningful impact in the markets where craft beer is already growing rapidly.
They are reaching to key cities such as:
- Denver
- Philadelphia
- New York
- Los Angeles
- San Francisco
- Seattle
- Portland
“You’re starting from ground zero, you can explode easily,” says Nick.
Yet, cider producers are finding that the industry needs to mature. Particularly, there is a need for more education in cider sales.
“Finding a distributor that understands cider is really difficult,” says Nick.
At the next CiderCON, the conference for the commercial cider industry to be held in February in Portland, Oregon, the United States Association of Cider Makers will unveil the first ever cider accreditation program. The multi-level program is designed to educate “distributors, servers and others who are interested in becoming trained experts on all things cider.”
As the cider market in America evolves, the industry adapts.
“It originally started out as sweet and fruity,” recalls Nick. “I like to call it ‘cheap and cheerful.’”
Now “cider varietals are being recognized, and the quality of cider they make.”
Nick foresees an increasing appreciation of drier ciders, and even higher quality cider apples. More cider will be made from heirloom sharps, cider will be fermented drier with higher alcohol content. There will be more barrel aged ciders, and ciders with more tannins. Ultimately terroir of cider will be recognized and appreciated.
Listener question: From Daniel Frey: What accounting system do you use or do you recommend?
Can’t-go-without tool: Cross-Flow filter, Pall Corporation.
Book recommendation: * Cider, Hard and Sweet: History, Traditions, and Making Your Own (Third Edition) by Ben Watson. * The New Cider Maker’s Handbook: A Comprehensive Guide for Craft Producers by Claude Jolicoeur.
Check out the entire list of recommended books, click here.
An upcoming beer style: North American Heirloom Cider
Other resources: * Bethel Heights Vineyard, Salem, Oregon. * CiderDays, community celebration of all things apple in Franklin County, Massachusetts. * QuickBooks Enterprise, Manufacturing & Wholesale, Intuit, Inc. * Craft Canning, Pacific Northwest. * 2 Towns Ciderhouse, Corvallis, Oregon. * Reverend Nat’s Hard Cider, Portland, Oregon. * Vander Mill, Spring Lake, Michigan. * Citizen Cider, Burlington, Vermont.
You can reach Nick Gunn and Wandering Aengus Ciderworks at: * www.wanderingaengus.com * Facebook: WanderingAengusCider * Twitter: wacider * Instagram: wanderingaengus * Untappd: WanderingAengusCiderworks
You can reach Anthem Cider at: * anthemcider.com * Twitter: anthemcider
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The post MicroBrewr 086: The future of apple cider in America appeared first on MicroBrewr.
Cody Martin worked in civil engineering and environmental engineering. After touring some breweries and seeing that they use familiar equipment, he asked his wife if he could start a brewery. She found work in Texas and he started Martin House Brewing Company in Fort Worth, Texas.
“Starting a brewery is a full-time job.” [Tweet This]
After they moved back to Texas, Cody worked full-time for 15 months to start his brewery.
“If you want to be a brewery in planning for 3 or 4 years,” he offers, “then go ahead and keep your job.”
In that time, he worked on his business plan, found partners and investors, introduced himself to local breweries, and work 20-30 hours per week for free in a local brewery.
Once the business plan was complete, they had 6 months allotted to finding investors and securing funding, and they got it done in only 6 weeks. They talked to anyone and everyone they could find or with whom they could make connections.
In the end, the owners with “skin in the game” had contributed approximately $60 thousand. Investors pitched in significantly more than that, he says. Approximately half of the capital came from friends and family, and about half came from other investors whom they had never previously met.
They were able to cut costs by doing the majority of the work themselves. “We literally built everything in this place ourself,” Cody remarks.
It helps that Cody is an engineer. They also called on old friends who gave them discount prices on skilled work.
Additionally, Cody says it very important to partner with people who compliment, rather than duplicate your own knowledge and skills.
“You need to make sure you have the team with the full talents of running a business,” Cody advises, “not just 3 brewers.”
Financially, it has worked well.
“We have zero debt,” says Cody, “so we were able to break even on that pretty quick. A few months in, we started paying ourselves a salary. And then our first full year of production, we were able to pay our investors back a little.”
Cody even had the opportunity to make a collaboration brew with one of his all-time favorite bands, Toadies.
In summary, Cody’s advice for starting a brewery:
- Quit your job.
- Have the support of your family.
- Assemble a team with diverse skills.
- Don’t buy a glycol chiller from China.
Brewery specs: Kettle size: 30 BBL.
Size and quantity of fermentation tanks: 4, 30-BBL; 2, 60-BBL fermenters.
Size and quantity of bright tanks: 1, 30-BBL; 1 60-BBL bright tanks.
Annual brewing capacity/last year’s production: 6,000-BBL capacity. About 2,800 BBL last year.
Square footage: 9,000 sq. ft.
Years in operation: 2.5 years (opened March 2013).
Listener question: From Sean McKeown: Do you still have the same passion for beer after doing it as a job, at a commercial level?
Can’t-go-without tool: Zip ties, duct tape, and Milwaukee 48-22-1901 Fastback Flip Open Utility Knife.
Book recommendation: * Water: A Comprehensive Guide for Brewers (Brewing Elements) by John Palmer and Colin Kaminski. * Malt: A Practical Guide from Field to Brewhouse (Brewing Elements) by John Mallett. * For The Love of Hops: The Practical Guide to Aroma, Bitterness and the Culture of Hops (Brewing Elements) by Stan Hieronymus. * Yeast: The Practical Guide to Beer Fermentation (Brewing Elements) by Chris White and Jamil Zainasheff.
Check out the entire list of recommended books, click here.
An upcoming beer style: Sour beer
Other resources: * Deep Ellum Brewing Company, Dallas, Texas. * The Florida weisse: a primer, Christopher Staten, DRAFT Magazine, March 18, 2014. * Toadies on iTunes. * Send Ska! Hawai’i’s Best of 2004, Gardenia Lane. * McMaster-Carr Supply Company, supplies and products to maintain manufacturing plants and large commercial facilities worldwide.
You can reach Cody Martine and Martin House Brewing Company at: * martinhousebrewing.com * Facebook: martinhousebrewing * Twitter: martinhousebrew * Instagram: martinhousebrewing * Untappd: martinhousebrewing
Sponsors:
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The post MicroBrewr 085: Starting a brewery is a full-time job appeared first on MicroBrewr.
As soon as Mark McTavish could acknowledge alcohol, he gravitated toward hard cider. Later, he attended beverage management school and opened a craft beer bar in Toronto, Canada. Now in the U.S., Mark owns a cider distribution company and 101 Cider House in Los Angeles, California.
“As a cider maker, you’re not really making anything. You’re more of a custodian to the beverage.” [Tweet This]
Mark had a long career in the fitness business, selling exercise equipment and helping gyms get started. He is very health conscious and this comes through in his hard cider.
101 Cider House focuses on a “healthy” alcoholic beverage. All of 101 Cider products are: raw, living, and probiotic.
Some attributes of what Mark calls a healthy hard cider:
- Wild fermented
- A living beverage, don’t kill the juice in the process
- Not filtered
- No added sulfites
The hard cider market is absolutely exploding, with 500% growth in the last 3 years. Besides the general growth, Mark is tapping the health foods sector.
“From step one,” reflects Mark, “I always wanted to make a healthy alcohol.”
“Here in Los Angeles,” he says, “people are very interested in their health foods. When it comes to alcohol, a lot of people tend to check their standards at the door.”
“We have to show our ingredients in our cider,” Mark says of the labels on the bottles. “Our biggest marketing tool is to show people that we are using 100% raw fruit and doing the natural process like we do.”
They don’t add any unnecessary or unexpected ingredients to the cider, not even yeast.
“Cider is like wine,” he says. “You can press the fruit naturally, let juices sit their and do its own thing with its indigenous yeasts, and it will tell you what it’s going to do with itself.
“And if you wait long enough, it will make something great.”
Brewery specs: Kettle size: n/a.
Size and quantity of fermentation tanks: 8, 2000-gal (64-BBL) poly tanks; 6, 275-gal (9-BBL) poly tanks; 50, 55-gal (1.75-BBL) oak barrels.
Size and quantity of bright tanks: 0. Not required as we bottle-condition and keg-condition all product.
Annual brewing capacity/last year’s production: 50,000-gal capacity.
Square footage: 7000 sq. ft.
Years in operation: 10 months years (opened December 2014).
Listener question: From Rob Lightner: Has your brewery turned out the way you thought it would? And if not, how is it different?
Can’t-go-without tool: Pump.
Book recommendation: * The E-Myth : Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It by Michael E. Gerber.
Check out the entire list of recommended books, click here.
An upcoming beer style: Hopped cider
Other resources: * Half Pint Ciders, Westlake Village, California. * Tilted Shed Ciderworks, Windsor, California. * Devoto Orchards Cider, Sebastopol, California. * AppleGarden Farm, Tomales, California. * Hard Cider for Brewers by Marc Sorini and Bethany Hatef, The New Brewer, May/June 2014. (See “TTB & FDA labeling requirements for hard cider” on page 28) * Why Your Supermarket Sells Only 5 Kinds of Apples by Rowan Jacobsen, Mother Jones, March/April 2013.
You can reach Mark McTavish and 101 Cider House at: * www.101cider.com * Facebook: 101cider-878622528843097 * Twitter: 101cider * Instagram: 101cider
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